The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Physalis plant, botanically known as Physalis alkekengi, commonly known as Winter Cherry, Chinese Lantern or Japanese Lantern Plant and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Prince’.
The new Physalis is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Boijl, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new medium-sized Physalis plants with freely and continuous flowering habit that produce large and showy orange-colored “lanterns”.
The new Physalis plant originated from a cross-pollination conducted by the Inventor in Boijl, The Netherlands during the summer of 2009 of a proprietary selection of Physalis alkekengi identified as code name JEL12-17, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Physalis alkekengi identified as code name JEL03, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Physalis was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Boijl, The Netherlands in October, 2010.
Asexual reproduction of the new Physalis plant by terminal cuttings in Boijl, The Netherlands since July, 2011 has shown that the unique features of this new Physalis plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.